Who is Stratton White?
“Watch it, esquire,” was a common phrase in our home growing up. My mother called me that nickname for as long as I can remember, usually instigated by a three-year-old me arguing with multiple points as to why chicken nuggets were a better option for dinner than what had been cooked– I usually lost.
Call it conditioning, but my nickname turned into my goal as I got older. I didn’t know what kind of law I wanted to practice, until my first job out of high school. I became a camp counselor because it seemed like fun: teaching kids to swim, playing sports with them, and fostering good relationships to steer them in a positive direction.
The latter ended up affecting me a lot more than I anticipated when one of my campers came in early one June morning visibly upset. We’d been informed at the beginning of the summer to not let her father pick her up because of a custody dispute her parents were having, but that morning was the first time I’d seen her act out of tune with the bubbly behavior typical of a six-year-old. I sat on the playground next to her, and when I asked what was wrong, I got the full story as best a kid could share. What I noticed was that it wasn’t the fighting or the separation of her parents that was upsetting her that morning, rather how she spoke about them indicated that it was because she felt an overall feeling of invisibility in something that at its core was about her.
That day was when I set my sights on family law. I wanted the ability to make sure kids like her weren’t feeling lost in the noise that naturally comes with divorce and custody proceedings. I worked there the following summer, and by that time the custody issue had been resolved. She was thriving. I knew I wanted to someday be an attorney that could guide families to get to that often too rare result.
I later graduated from the University of South Carolina in 2022 with a degree in Broadcast Journalism (go cocks!), and I have just completed my first year at the Charleston School of Law where I’m a member of the Children’s Advocacy and Family Law Society and the Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity. When not working you can usually find me on the water or at a new coffee shop; Origin on MLK Blvd is my favorite one so far. I’m a native South Carolinian, growing up in Greenville, but I’m excited to call Savannah home this summer while I have the privilege to intern here at The Law Office of Casey Tuggle!
- Stratton White
